Exploring pays off!

On the first Sunday of each month, I drive 226 miles round-trip up to Long Beach to attend the monthly meeting of the Long Beach Cactus Club. I guess you could say I’m dedicated to this cactus thing.

I have an intermediate stop at the La Costa Park & Ride to pick up Annie Morgan, Program Chair (and more!) of the Palomar Cactus & Succulent Society in Escondido, California.

Usually I get there a couple of minutes later than my ETA because traffic conditions just are not consistent in large metroplexes. This past Sunday, though, I got there 30 minutes early, and it’s only a 40-minute drive. I did not speed. Believe me.

Whenever I get somewhere early, I make it a point to walk around and explore, never knowing what I might find. This past Sunday I found this pretty little flower:

Exploring paid off! That picture will make a nice puzzle or something, especially if I can find out the name of the plant.

I have no idea what the plant is. It was bare of leaves but with many dozens of half-inch pink flowers, looking very beautiful in the dry heat where I found it.

I’m trying to get on the cactus & succulent society speaking circuit with my Nature’s Geometry presentation. That would require me to go to meetings throughout the country, and I would be driving to everything west of the Mississippi River.

Taken with the same macro lens and camera that I used at your place the other day when I showed George a picture that he called “soft focus.” If he knows soft focus, I’m sure he knows what happens when the wind is blowing, which it was not on Sunday.

I thought the photo you took at my house was amazing, lots of detail in a 1/4” flowers, and I didn’t agree about the “soft focus”. But perhaps I need to see a copy of it to be sure and am looking forward to seeing one. George no longer takes pictures in nature and all of his now need to be as sharply focused as possible.

I also had magnified the photo by 400% on my camera in order to see the colors. Any magnification to that extent will cause pixelation, or “soft focus.” The picture is not as sharp as this one, but for my purposes in creating Photographic Art, it’s fine.